Snow Trillium Infrared

The Snow Trillium (Trillium nivale) captures our attention once more, this time in infrared. The flowers at this patch are in peak bloom at the moment. It will not last forever. Many other flowers are beginning to sprout in this sudden spring. The snow trillium blossoms will fade, and other colorful suitors will distract the camera. For now, though, the snow trillium remains the star of the woodland ephemeral show.

I have been spending a good bit of time at this patch of snow trillium. Searching for a new perspective, I brought out the full spectrum camera, a Fuji IS Pro UVIR. Post-processing is a very important step in non-visible-light photography. What comes out of camera is only the beginning. I am still working on that aspect. There is the slightest hint of color remaining after post-processing this time. Complete black-and-white wasn’t really working here; everything tended to go gray. I’m finding false-color to be more interesting than black and white for my IR photographs, at least for now. After much fiddling, the present version is what I decided to share. The flower usually gets all the attention; the infrared-white leaves bring the rest of the plant to equal footing with the blossom. I like how it brings out the veins in the leaves.

The lens was the versatile 18-55mm AF-S DX VR. I used a 720nm IR-pass filter. I attach the IR filter with a Nikon AF-1 Gel Filter Holder; it is hinged so that I can drop the filter out of the way for composing, then flip it back into place.

As a bonus, here are the same flowers from a slightly different angle, but with a unfiltered full-spectrum photograph using the Fuji IS Pro UVIR. Saturation and RGB levels tweaked in Aperture.